XML data in ODBC applications

In Db2 tables, the XML built-in data type is used to store XML data in a column as a structured set of nodes in a tree format.

The ODBC symbolic SQL data type SQL_XML corresponds to the Db2 XML data type. The symbolic C data types that you can use for updating XML columns or retrieving data from XML columns are SQL_C_BINARY, SQL_C_CHAR, SQL_C_DBCHAR or SQL_C_WCHAR. The default C data type is SQL_C_BINARY, which is also the recommended data type because it enables the data to be manipulated in its native format. This data type reduces conversion overhead and minimizes data loss that can result from the conversions.